Iran nuclear deal: Russia says Trump's actions are 'doomed to fail'

Russian foreign ministry says decision to de-certify an international deal runs counter to its spirit

A picture taken on 20 August, 2010 shows the test firing at an undisclosed location in Iran of a surface-to-surface Qiam missile, entirely designed and built domestically and powered by liquid fuel, a day before the Islamic republic was due to launch its Russian-built first nuclear power plant (VAHID REZA ALAEI/AFP/Getty Images)

Russia's foreign ministry has warned Donald Trump that his imposed unilateral sanctions on Iran are doomed to fail, saying there is no place for threatening and aggressive rhetoric in international diplomacy.

In a statement, the ministry said Mr Trump's decision to de-certify an international deal on Iran's nuclear program would not have a direct impact on implementation of the agreement, but that it ran counter to its spirit.

The ministry said that, whatever the US position, there could be no return to imposing United Nations sanctions on Iran.

Mr Trump has announced that if Congress does not come up with satisfactory changes to the Iran nuclear deal in a "very short" period of time then he is prepared to "terminate" it.

The President said he was "very unhappy with Iran” and that the country "has to behave much differently".

He did however say he was not withdrawing from the deal but instead has asked Congress to make changes.

Congress will now have 60 days to decide whether to put the accord's previous sanctions back into place, modify them or do nothing. Any decision to re-impose sanctions would automatically kill America's participation in the deal.

Both defenders of the Iran nuclear deal and critics are likely to be displeased by Mr Trump's decision.

Those who support the deal believe Mr Trump's move will damage US credibility in future international negotiations, while opponents think he does not go far enough in unravelling the accord.